HHS SIRVA Rule Change Delayed for 60 Days

UPDATE AS OF 04/05/2021: The Department of Health and Human Services is in the processing of withdrawing the SIRVA rule change. Read this blog to learn more: https://shannonlawgroup.com/hhs-rescinds-proposal-to-remove-sirva-from-vaccine-injury-table/.

If you believe you have a shoulder injury as a result of a vaccine, contact us today for more details. 

—

On January 21, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services’s proposed rule to remove SIRVA (Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration) from the Vaccine Injury Table was published in the Federal Register.  This rule change was scheduled to become effective on February 22, 2021.  We’ve covered what the rule change means and how it would impact people petitioning for compensation after a SIRVA injury. (If you’d like to learn more about our thoughts, click here.)  Suffice to say, we were very strongly opposed to this rule change, and we were disappointed that it was pushed through.

When President Biden was inaugurated, his Chief of Staff informed the heads of all departments to “freeze” any pending rules and regulatory changes. The new administration wanted to review them before they were published or became effective.  We hoped that the “freeze” would include HHS’s rule to remove SIRVA from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), but we did not hear anything until recently.

On February 12, 2021, HHS published a new notice of proposed rule-making that would delay the effective date of SIRVA’s removal from the Vaccine Injury Table for a period of 60 days until April 23, 2021.  You can read HHS’s proposal here.

We expect that the effective date of SIRVA’s removal will be pushed back to April 23, 2021.  This is a great outcome for anyone who has suffered a shoulder injury after receiving a vaccine and hasn’t contacted a vaccine injury attorney yet.  This delay will allow them an extra two months to get a petition on file and preserve a SIRVA “table case.” Assuming that their case meets the criteria set forth in the Vaccine Injury Table, they will be afforded a presumption that the vaccine caused their SIRVA injury.

While we are excited about the 60-day delay, we remain hopeful that the new administration will find a reason to stop the SIRVA rule change from becoming effective altogether.  They have indicated that this delay is necessary to determine whether the underlying rule change raises many legal, factual, or policy issues.  And we hope that a close re-examination of the underlying rule will result in a different outcome.

We will know more in the coming days and will continue to update this article as we learn more.

If you have questions about SIRVA, the Vaccine Injury  Compensation Program, or HHS’s proposed rule change, please do not hesitate to contact us. For the time being, we are still offering consultations for anyone suffering from a shoulder injury due to vaccination. If you believe you have experienced a SIRVA injury or any other vaccine injury, please call us at (312) 578-9501 or fill out the form at the bottom of this page to get started.